Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
REGULAR SESSION
        Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 622
          By Senators Tarr and Woodrum [Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
            reported February 13, 2024]
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  A BILL to amend and reenact §3-2-25 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
          systemic purging program and additional systematic confirmation procedure for the
          removal of ineligible voters from active voter rolls; removing obsolete reference to
          combined voter registration and licensing fund; decreasing the period of voting inactivity
          from four to two years; and providing an internal effective date.
     Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
     ARTICLE 2. REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.
     §3-2-25. Systematic purging program for removal of ineligible voters from active voter registration files; comparison of data records; confirmation notices; public inspection list.
          (a) The systematic purging program provided in this section shall begin no earlier than
  October 1 of each odd-numbered year and shall be completed no later than February 1 of the
  following year. The clerk of the county commission shall transmit, or mail to the Secretary of State,
  a certification that the systematic purging program has been completed and all voters identified as
  no longer eligible to vote have been canceled in the statewide voter registration database in
  accordance with the law no later than February 15 in the year in which the purging program is
  completed.
          (b) The Secretary of State shall provide for the comparison of data records of all counties.
  The Secretary of State shall, based on the comparison, prepare a list for each county which shall
 include the voter registration record for each voter shown on that county's list who appears to have
 registered or to have updated a voter registration in another county at a subsequent date. The
 resulting lists shall be returned to the appropriate county and the clerk of the county commission
 shall proceed with the confirmation procedure for those voters as prescribed in section twenty-six
 of this article §3-2-26 of this code.
         (c) The Secretary of State may provide for the comparison of data records of counties with
 the data records of the Division of Motor Vehicles, the registrar of vital statistics, and with the data
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 records of any other state agency which maintains records of residents of the state, if the
 procedure is practical and the agency agrees to participate. Any resulting information regarding
 potentially ineligible voters shall be returned to the appropriate county and the clerk of the county
 commission shall proceed with the confirmation procedure as prescribed in section twenty-six of
 this article §3-2-26 of this code.
         (d) The records of all voters not identified pursuant to the procedures set forth in
 subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall be combined for comparison with United States Postal
 Service change of address information, as described in section 8(c)(A) of the National Voter
 Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq.). The Secretary of State shall contract with
 an authorized vendor of the United States Postal Service to perform the comparison. The cost of
 the change of address comparison procedure shall be paid for from the combined voter
 registration and licensing fund established in section twelve of this article and the cost of the
 confirmation notices, labels, and postage shall be paid for by the counties.
         (e) The Secretary of State shall return to each county the identified matches of the county
 voter registration records and the postal service change of address records.
         (1) When the change of address information indicates the voter has moved to a new
 address within the county, the clerk of the county commission shall enter the new address on the
 voter record and assign the proper precinct.
         (2) The clerk of the county commission shall then mail to each voter who appears to have
 moved from the residence address shown on the registration records a confirmation notice
 pursuant to section twenty-six of this article §3-2-26 of this code and of section 8(d)(2) of the
 National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq.). The notice shall be mailed,
 no later than December 31, to the new address provided by the postal service records or to the old
 address if a new address is not available.
         (f) The clerk of the county commission shall indicate in the statewide voter registration
 database the name and address of each voter to whom a confirmation notice was mailed and the
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 date on which the notice was mailed.
        (g) Upon receipt of any response or returned mailing sent pursuant to the provisions of
 subsection (e) of this section, the clerk shall immediately enter the date and type of response
 received in the statewide voter registration database and shall then proceed in accordance with
 the provisions of section twenty-six of this article §3-2-26 of this code.
        (h) For purposes of complying with the record keeping and public inspection requirements
 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq.), and with the
 provisions of section twenty-seven of this article §3-2-27 of this code, the public inspection lists
 shall be maintained either (1) in printed form kept in a binder prepared for such purpose and
 available for public inspection during regular business hours at the office of the clerk of the county
 commission, or (2) in read-only data format available for public inspection on computer terminals
 set aside and available for regular use by the general public. Information concerning whether or
 not each person has responded to the notice shall be entered into the statewide voter registration
 database upon receipt and shall be available for public inspection as of the date the information is
 received.
        (i) Any voter to whom a confirmation notice was mailed pursuant to the provisions of
 subsection (e) of this section who fails to respond to the notice, or to update his or her voter
 registration address by February 1 immediately following the completion of the program, shall be
 designated inactive in the statewide voter registration database. Any voter designated inactive
 shall be required to affirm his or her current residence address on a form prescribed by the
 Secretary of State, upon appearing at the polls to vote.
        (j) In addition to the preceding purging procedures, all counties using the change of
 address information of the United States Postal Service shall also, once each four years during the
 period established for systematic purging in the year following a presidential election year, conduct
 the same procedure by mailing a confirmation notice to those persons not identified as potentially
 ineligible through the change of address comparison procedure but who have not updated their
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 voter registration records and have not voted in any election during the preceding four two
 calendar years. The purpose of this additional systematic confirmation procedure shall be to
 identify those voters who may have moved without filing a forwarding address, moved with a
 forwarding address under another name, died in a another county or state so that the certificate of
 death was not returned to the clerk of the county commission, or who otherwise have become
 ineligible.
         (i) The amendments to this section enacted by the Legislature in the 2024 Regular Session
 are effective January 1, 2025.
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Statutes affected: 
Introduced Version: 3-2-25
Committee Substitute: 3-2-25